Russia releases Greenpeace doctor, photographer
Saint Petersburg (AFP) - A Russian court extended the pre-trial detention Monday of an Australian member of a Greenpeace crew arrested for a protest against Arctic oil drilling while freeing a Russian doctor and a photographer on bail.
Yekaterina Zaspa, a doctor with Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise icebreaker, became the first of the 30 arrested crew members to be freed pending trial, after two months in detention.
She will be released on bail of two million rubles ($61,400, 45,500 euros), Greenpeace said, citing the ruling of the Kalininsky court in Russia's second city of Saint Petersburg.
The court set the same bail conditions for Russian photographer Denis Sinyakov, who has worked in the past for both Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
The 28 activists and two reporters from 18 countries were first charged with piracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years. The charges were later changed to hooliganism, which carries a punishment of up to seven years.
In another sign of hope for the detainees, a prosecutor said Monday he was not against another activist, Ana Paula Maciel from Brazil, also being freed, according to Greenpeace.
A decision on Maciel's fate will be announced on Tuesday.
Earlier on Monday, another Saint Petersburg court extended the pre-trial detention of Australian activist Colin Russell by three months until February 24, meaning he could remain in jail throughout the Winter Olympic Games in the Russian city of Sochi, which end on February 23.
"I love you all. I love everybody," said Russell, 59, after the judge announced her decision. "I am not a criminal," he said in comments released by Greenpeace.
Earlier in the day Russell insisted he was innocent.
"I have not committed a crime so I have nothing to run from," Russell, looking visibly upset, said from a metal cage in the courtroom.
Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo said: "This case is now a circus.
"We will continue to pursue every legal avenue we can, and leave no stone unturned, until each and every one of them is home with their families," he said in a statement.
'Let me go home'
'Let me go home'
The crew members were put in pre-trial jail in September after their ship was seized at gunpoint by Russian security forces following their open-sea protest against Arctic oil drilling.
Stars including Madonna and Paul McCartney, as well as politicians such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have called for their release.
The global outcry over the Greenpeace campaigners' treatment has been compared to the international shock following the jailing for two years of two members of the punk band Pussy Riot after they performed an anti-Putin song in a Moscow cathedral last year.
On Friday, an international maritime court will decide whether to order Russia to release the activists in a case brought by the Netherlands, the ship's flag country.
The two courts in Saint Petersburg are set to continue the bail hearings for the remaining Greenpeace detainees throughout the week.
Brazilian activist Maciel held up several placards inside her metal cage on Monday.
"I love Russia but let me go home," read one poster. "Save the Arctic," read another.
Her lawyer earlier urged the judge to think about Russia's international reputation.
"I am calling on the court not to violate the legal norms otherwise no one would come for the Olympics because no one would want to come to a country where law is violated," Sergei Golubok said in court.
But Nikolai Petrov, an analyst with the Higher School of Economics, suggested the activists could be released in the run-up to the high-profile Games "to improve Russia's image".
